Beyond The Impossible

Rigil Station

Alpha Centauri A, 4.37 light-years from Earth

The gigantic female robot is clearly visible from the station, as well as the dozens of ships converging towards it.

General Kamos already regrets his decision to transfer from the Athenian Fleet to the Olympian Navy: things were never this crazy under Athena’s leadership.

Now Athena’s warship has been warped into a strange creature, and reinforcements are still a long way from reaching this sector.

He doesn’t need sensors to watch the fight between the possessed warship and the rest of the fleet: the battle is already visible from the window in his office, despite being half a million miles away.

His attention is then attracted by the goddess materializing behind him, announced tough an intense beam of golden light.

<General. Evacuate the station.> Athena orders. Much to the General’s surprise, she looks surprisingly beat up.

<Your Majesty! I thought you were in the fight.> Kamos points out; he’s never seen fear in Athena’s eyes. In fact, up to moments ago he didn’t think she was capable of having fear.

<This Siduri creature is a cunning adversary, despite her infantile speech pattern. She will quickly overpower the other ships, and the last thing we need is giving her more matter to possess.>

<I don’t understand. Hasn’t the battle just ended?> Kamos asks, now that the impressive light show has ended and that the sensors are no longer picking up any shots being fired.

<On the contrary, it has just begun. There’s no more time to evacuate: I’m sending an emergency summon to Minister of Defense.> Athena announces, pressing holographic buttons projected over the vambrace of her golden armor.

<You mean Enyo? With all due respect, Your Majesty, the fleet can handle this on its own… we hardly need two war goddesses on… our… side…> Kamos hesitates to finish the sentence, how that the giant robot is suddenly towering over the station.

<This form is more versatile, yes?> the robot says, her voice being transmitted on all frequencies as it grabs the station in its arms.

<Please try to survive, General. I dislike wasting time training new recruits.> Athena tells him, although following her advice is not easy when the station itself begins warping.

Athena simply smashes through the hull, flying into space to observe the disturbing scene: the body that Siduri created for herself by possessing her Aegis warship has already absorbed the mass of every single ship sent to fight her, and it’s now absorbing Rigil Station.

<How the Hades do we stop that thing!?> Kari Zel exclaims, returning solid next to Athena and kept alive by the Survival Field emitted by her belt.

<I’m still elaborating a plan.> Athena admits.

<Well elaborate faster! I had a quick look inside her robot form: there’s still hundreds of people trapped inside her, but I don’t know how long they’ll last without life support!> Kari says.

<Not long enough. We can’t interact with Siduri’s true form, only with the matter she’s possessing: if we destroy her, we condemn the crew. It’s conceivable that she can be forced to separate herself from the matter she’s animating, but that would require a high level Nexus user… and we are currently in short supply of that.> Athena laments, just as Siduri has finished fully absorbing the station inside her new body.

<So what’s your plan? We fight her until Noriko gets her powers back?> Kari asks.

<Yes. Failing that, in order to stop Abyss from taking control of Siduri’s form, I will have to destroy Earth myself.>

<For a goddess of wisdom, Athena, your plan sucks!> Kari tells her, transforming her body into a powerful laser and launching herself at the giant robot.

 

Hoboken, New Jersey, Earth

Heritage Capital Bank

What’s left of Earth’s thinking population can now fit in a single room: Noriko Null, Vesta, Torn, Quantum and his sister Kayla have gathered in this currently otherwise empty building.

<I hope that recovering this was important. Things are weird out there.> Vesta tells Noriko, handing over a small package.

In return, Noriko gives her the bottle of Maenad Absinthe taken from the vault.

<You’ll see. Define “weird” in our situation.> Noriko says, inspecting the package.

<Hundreds of people sitting in the street, doing nothing. I thought Abyss would’ve noticed us going through storage, but she’s stopped looking for us.> Kayla clarifies.

<She’s synchronizing the souls she’s possessing.> Torn explains.

<I take it that’s a bad thing?> Quantum suggests.

<It’s Abyss.> Torn replies, and for once everyone understands what he means.

<Then we better move on. Torn, I’m going to need some help here: can you scratch letters onto this thing?> Noriko asks, handing him what she just took out of the package: two nameplates with the Null Technologies logo and her Ø symbol, but otherwise blank.

<Label the first one “Asgard Station”.> Noriko instructs her.

Torn creates a scalpel made of Blood energy, and he quickly etches the words on the nameplate.

<Great. Kayla, please fix this to the entrance door.> Noriko then adds, giving her the object.

<Uh, Nori, what the heck are you doing?> Vesta wonders.

<Technically speaking I own this building. I’m betting on this action being close enough as renaming it Asgard Station.>

<How is that going to help!?> Quantum exclaims.

<Now Torn, please sketch on the other one “Maximum Security Vault #4”.> Noriko ignores him.

They’re far enough to the entrance to have given Kayla enough time to do her job, and as she comes back she also wants some answers.

<Done, I’ve fused the nameplate to the door with lasers. I could swear there’s enough electricity in the air out there to taste it, Noriko: Abyss is about to do something big. If you have a plan, now’s the time to act because I think she won’t take long to notice us.> Kayla says.

<Don’t worry: if I’m right, she won’t be able to follow us. Last part, Torn, nail this one.> Noriko orders, holding the nameplate against the door of the broom closet.

A couple of Blood nails later, everyone is just staring at Noriko.

<What?> she asks, feeling the pressure.

<Perhaps losing the Nexus gave her brain damage.> Torn suggests.

<Dude!!!> Quantum complains.

<We were all thinking it.> the Demon shrugs.

<Okay, remember the wishes I made on the Tablet of Destinies? One of them was creating a door that only a member of the Vanguard could open, linking the Empyrean dimension to…> Noriko explains, tapping on the broom closet’s door.

<“Maximum Security Vault #4 of Asgard Station.”> Vesta reads out loud.

<You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s already an Asgard Station with a door like that!> Quantum exclaims.

<Well now there’s two. The Tablet it said to grant “supreme authority over the universe”, so… let’s see how thorough that authority really is.> Noriko replies, opening the door.

 

The Empyrean, outside the universe

On the other side of the closet door, there’s a glass library surrounded by enormous walls of near-infinite power taking the form of burning white fires.

And resting on a pedestal, an unassumingly thin black object… the Tablet of Destinies.

<I can’t believe that actually worked.> Quantum admits.

<Did you plan this as an emergency plan when you made the wish?> Vesta wonders, looking at the other powerful object stored in the Empyrean… the lantern containing the Soul of Kronos.

She forces herself to stop looking at it. She has too much to think about already.

<I’ll tell you once I get my powers back. Speaking of which… Tablet?> Noriko calls it, taking the object into her own hands. It looks like a regular tablet, and it’s cold to the touch.

<Invalid user.> the object replies.

<It’s recognizing you as a goddess. It’s a Drylon device, you won’t be able to use it.> Vesta reminds her.

<I was afraid of that. Max, you might want to power up the Nexus for this.> Noriko suggests, handing him the Tablet.

<Wouldn’t that allow Abyss to control him? I thought that was the whole idea for making me shut down the Nexus with an EMP.> Kayla asks.

<We’re currently outside our universe. I doubt Abyss can extend this far, and if she tried I can attempt to shield him if necessary.> Torn answers.

<I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly the best at using this.> Quantum admits, pointing at his own head.

<I just handed you the most powerful weapon in the universe. I’d feel safer if the one using it was the smartest person available, and currently that’s you.> Noriko insists.

<Yeah that’s fair. Just in case I start acting like a jerk again, I apologize in advance.> Quantum says, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

When he opens them again, they’re bright silver sources of light.

<Then again, if this doesn’t work, we will all die soon enough to make apologies an afterthought, right?> he adds.

<I really hope this won’t backfire.> Kayla admits.

<Tablet. Are you operational?> Quantum asks.

<You have unlocked 1 action. Select target.> the Tablet of Destinies says.

<I need to ask a few questions first. Can you return the members of the Vanguard to their state prior to the use of the mirror thing?>

<Negative. Invalid target.>

<How does it even know what you’re talking about?> Vesta wonders.

<Basic logic. Based on context clues, the user is referring to the Twilight Mirror.>

<Let me handle the questions, Vesta. Tablet, why is the target invalid?> Quantum asks.

<Target “members of the Vanguard” include corrupted intrinsic signature.>

<Explain. Which member and what kind of corruption?> Quantum elaborates.

<Target “Noriko Null” intrinsically entangled with a god. Gods are not valid users. >

<Why does it matter? You can affect gods, they just can’t make wishes.>

<Correct. Target is a former Tablet user. Risk of a god attempting to bypass credential limitations triggered a security lock.> the device explains.

<Override security lock.> Quantum tries, already suspecting this won’t work.

<User authorization insufficient. Drylon Genetic Code required for override.>

<Dammit. Well, it was worth a shot. Tablet, can you destroy Abyss?>

<Negative. Invalid target.>

<Oh come on!!!> Noriko complains.

<This device might be more trouble than it’s worth.> Torn comments.

<How about freeing Earth’s population from its control?> Quantum attempts.

<Negative. Invalid target.>

<Let me guess: another “intrinsic signature” problem?>

<Correct. Target “Abyss” entangled with former user “Noriko Null”, triggering…>

<Security lock, I’d say. Any suggestions on what we can wish for, at this point? Assuming this piece of junk still works, which looks increasingly less likely.> Quantum complains.

<Tablet. Can the Twilight Mirror be used to transform gods into mortals, and vice versa?> Vesta intervenes to ask.

<You are asking the Tablet of Destinies. Not the Twilight Mirror.> the device answers, with a bit of an attitude in its voice.

<What’s the matter, you’re not smart enough to know the answer?> Quantum asks, hoping that the Drylon’s nature is still visible through their greatest creation.

<The Twilight Mirror can only transfer ownership of other Drylon devices. It cannot transfer the properties of a mortal to a god or of a god to a mortal.>

<But that’s exactly what happened to me, so obviously it can do it.> Vesta insists.

<Negative. The Twilight Mirror only works on valid Drylon device users.>

<What can turn a god into a mortal?> Torn wonders.

<The Tablet of Destinies is currently the only device capable of this action. Do you require the Table to turn a god into a mortal?>

<You said “currently”.> Noriko notices, ignored by the Tablet.

<Well of course, we know Heaven used to…> Quantum answers, pausing when his silver eyes light up once he realizes something.

<Tablet, if a goddess was transformed into a human in Heaven, would her intrinsic signature still maintain traces of that after her return to the regular universe?> he asks.

<Correct. Traces would remain until the goddess’s internal state remains consistent with her wishes in Heaven.>

<What does that even mean!?> Vesta asks.

<Heaven turned you into a mortal because you wished it to. Tablet, could those traces of Heaven fool the Twilight Mirror into believing the goddess is a mortal?> Quantum theorizes.

<It is possible. The Twilight Mirror is not as advanced as the Tablet of Destinies.>

<Then what do I have to do to be a goddess again?> Vesta asks.

<Regress the internal state before its access to Heaven. This will erase the traces and the Twilight Mirror will automatically execute a reset.>

<You mean all she has to do is to stop wishing to be a mortal?> Quantum asks.

<Correct.>

<That’s absurd, I don’t want to be a mortal anymore!> Vesta replies.

<Incorrect. Perhaps you lack sufficient mental capacity to recognize it.>

<You were right, Torn, this thing really is more trouble than it’s worth.> Vesta comments.